By Russ Britt

A couple of biopharma companies — Chimerix Inc. and Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. — have been hit by big sell-offs this week, with a marked drop on Wednesday underscoring their recent difficulties.

It was unclear what drove the drop for Aegerion
/quotes/zigman/624094/quotes/nls/aegrAEGR, which plunged more than 10% to $76.42 at the close. It may be that investors are concerned about another shortfall in earnings.

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Aegerion’s shares had been trading well above $80 after it reported second-quarter earnings, as the market anticipated high sales for its Juxtapid cholesterol drug. They hit an all-time intraday high last week of $97.83, but then plunged over the past three sessions, losing more than 27%. Aegerion has sunk to levels reached before the last quarterly report, in the $70 range.

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